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oe Whitby Free Press, Wednesday, May 5, 1993, Page 39 Rabies cases are expected to increase. Rabies in Durham Region is expected to increase dramatically in 1993 and 1994, according to Aiculture Canada. As of April 26, 25 animals in Durham have been diagnosed to have rabies -- 14 foxes, nine skunks and two cattle. That compares to five cases for the same period last year. Agriculture Canada says the current "hot spot" for rabies is in a large area that includes Whitby. The area is from Uxbridge south to Greenwood *village at Highway 7, and from the York- Durham town line near Stouff- ville in the west to Highway 12 in the east. But the ministry says no area is immune as rabid animals can travel long distances. Twenty-one people have died from raies in Canada since 1925, the most recent in Alberta. in 1985. In Durham, a boy died in Port Perry in 1958 after being bitten b a skunk. People can protect themselves from rabies by regularly vac- cinating animals that are under their care; avoiding contact with wild animals, especially those that appear 'friendly' or sick; supervising domestic pets; avoid- ing strays and reporting them to animal control. AIl suspected rabies cases should be reported to Agriculture Canada in Bowmanville at 416- 623-5759. Private veterinarians and ani- mal control may also provide intermediate assistance. Small impact predicted RETIRING Whitby Seniors' Activity Centre honoured at a special 'appreciation night' board members (from left) Ken Jones, Alex recently at the centre. Hamill and Ross Law were among those Photo by Mark Reesor, Whitby Free Press Nurses Week recognzed by hospital By Lucie Rochette Nurses Week is May 9 to 15. To recognize the nurses at Whitby General Hospital for the work they do, a few activities are planned during the week. Nurses from all of the depart- ments in the hospital will each have their day to present skits. There is a pancake breakfast and a bake sale planned, a num- ber of draws will be held, and prizes awarded to the nurses. Also to celebrate Nurses Week, a contest will take place inside the hospital. Hospital staff will vote for their favourite nurse from each department in the hospital. The contest will go on through- out the week of May 2 to 8, and winners will be announced dur- ing Nurses Week. Edwards: Warehouse plan may go to OMB FROM PAGE 1 Whitby. As well, the issue will almost certainly wind up before the OMB, Edwards said, "unless common sense prevails." Although he does not dispute anyone's right to appeal council's decision, Edwards hopes the objections are "more substantial" than arguments made to date. He said fears that area businesses will be harmed by the proposal have been rebuffed by the extensive marketing reports prepared in support of the appli- cation. "The reason it took so long to come before our council and the Region is that we wanted to make sure the planning data supported it," said Edwards. Early last year Invar Indus- trial Ltd. filed rezoning and offi- cialplan amendment applica- tions for 22 acres of vacant land on the north side of Victoria Street, east of Thickson. It wants to build two stores which would house the Price Club and Aikenhead's -- two un- related wholesate/retaiVware- housing operations. Price Club is an American- owned chain which does not cater to the general public but operates on a restricted member- ship basis. About 55 per cent of its sales come from food, with the remain- der coming from non-food and department store-type items. Aikenhead's, owned by The Molson Companies, is a building supplies and garden centre geared to both consumers and professional contractors. The 'equivalent' of 540 full- time jobs are expected to be created by the stores, which will have projected conbined sales of $135 million in the first year of operation. (Equivalent means that two part-time jobs at 20 hours per week are considered one full- time position.) While studies prepared in sup- port of Invar's application con- tend the impact on local business will be minimal, many area mer- chants disagree, claiming any new jobs will be off-set from jobs lost elsewhere. They also charge the ware- houses will receive an unfair tax advantage from being located in an industrial area. Edwards coñceded that there will be "some initial dislocation" once the stores are built. But he stressed that "I could not support this matter unless I was confident it will not adversely affect existing busi- ness." Edwards also said Price Club and Aikenhead's will not benefit from paying a lower assessment. In a previous interview Whitby treasurer AI Claringbol said that based on information received to date, the warehouses will pay a projected $454,018 in taxes annua]l Claringbol dsaid these figures were. calculated on the site's existing zoning, but once a com- mercial rate is applied, the taxes will increase to some degree. However, the warehouses will be taxed at a commercial rate based on how much space is set aside for retail purposes. Mort Symington of the provin- cial assessment office confirmed Claringbold's figures. However he could not do like- wise for caims made by local Canadian Tire dealers that the warehouses will pay less taxes than commercial outlets of a similar size. For example, the Whitby Canadian Tire store p.aid slightly more than $103,000 in property and business taxes in 1992. But the dealers contend that if the 32,594-sq. ft. store was expanded to the size of the com- bined 242,000-sq. ft. warehouses, its taxes would be about $816,000. "The only way they (dealers) could accurately predict that would be to provide the assess- ment office with a breakdown on the type of building they were planning on," said Symington. "It would be more accurate than taking the building and dividing the square footage,» he said. Invar official Sal Crimi welco- med council's decision. "We're very happy and delighted that the Region saw fit to bring these uses into the community," he said. Crimi also expects an OMB challenge but he's hopeful that opponents may be dissuaded from doing so based on com- ments made by Invar solicitor Bob Jarvis last week. Crimi said Jarvis pointed out that in an unrelated matter, the board imposed costs against the losing party. "Given that we have unani- mous Whitby support and strong regional council support," Crimi is optimistic of the application's chances before the 0MB. Attorney Russ Cheeseman said his clients will "certainly be con- sidering" appealing council's decision. Cheeseman represents a num- ber of home improvement and hardware retailers in the area including three Whitby businesses --Canadian Tire, Lighting Unlirnited and the Vacuum Man. He said the aprlication will be fought on the girounds that it is an "inappropriate" use fer the Victoria Street location in that Durham's proposed official plan does not provide for warehouse club facilities. In a letter addressed to Dur- ham's planning committee, Chee- seman called claims that the stores will have no "undue im- pact" on existing retailers, "un- founded and ludicrous." Estimated sales of $120-$140 million "must come from some- where in 'the market," Cheese- man states. "They cannot be taken from existing businesses in the region with only 'minimal' impact," he adds. Whitby councillor Ross Batten disagrees with this assessment. "Tere will be some adverse effect to existing business, but free enterprise has to be allowed to revolve,"he said. Terming bulk merchandising "a new marketing strategy,» Bat- ten said Whitby must be "at the leading edge" of this type of development. "If we felt the ýworld will fold up and cease to exist we wouldn't suf rt it," he said. Ihope we're not proven wrong, but ùIl our reports said this would be good." FROM PAGE1 force soine -rethinking" but that Whitby does not find itself in the same position as other local government bodies. For instance, Durham Region councillors are meeting in special session today (Wednesday) at the Holiday Inn in Oshawa to dis- cuss the implications of the pro- vincial cutbacks. The Ontario government wants to chop unconditional grants to municipalities by $110 million and cut public sector employment costs by $285 mil- lion. Durham officials expect this will cost the region $7.9 million this year. Regional chair Gary Herrema fears the budget will have to be reopened and that taxes could increase beyond the 3.5 per cent hike approved in February. Whitby's share of the regional levy was to have been 6.2 per cent. But growth in assessment, about 3.8 per cent last year, lowered the increase to 2.4 per cent and owing to a reduction in waste disposai costs this year, Town council opted to absorb the 2.4 per cent. The provincial cutbacks have also thrown a curve at Durham's two school boards. Both the public and separate boards had planned to pass their respective budgets last week, but each was postponed to allow trustees and administrators time to assess the impact. Both boards had been con- sidering budgets which called for increases of 3.9 per cent. Re B a,,Reor s. .0rr1 R. .1o L al e B .tn s m mb o h oyl. i C ucl NEW REFILLABLE TONER CARTRIDGES Pitney Bowes toner cartridges are headed for refill ... not landfill. Pitney Bowes Canada Limited, in partnership with Purolator Courier Ltd. and Laidlaw Waste Systems, recently announced the industry's most comprehensive copier and plain-paper facsimile machine toner cartridge reuse and recycle program. 'We have developed a program that will maximize the reuse of copier and plain-paper facsimile toner cartridges collected from our customers across the country. Our objective is to refill 100 per cent of the empty cartridges and to recycle where this is not possible," says president Stephen McGill. "Our goal is to see the reuse of all cartridges. On an industry-wide basis, this could divert approximately 15,000 cubic yards of waste from landfill sites on an annual basis -- enough to fill 400 garbage trucks." Al new cartons of Pitney Bowes copies and plain-paper facsimile toner cartridges will be shipped from Pitney Bowes with a pre-paid Purolator Ecosystem shipping label. The Purolator Ecosystem service will pick up the cartons of empty cartridges and deliver them to the Laidlaw material recychng facility where they will be sorted for reuse and recycling. To ensure widespread and high levels of participation in the program, the cartridge-return service will be convenient for customers to use, and all shipping, refilling and recycling costs will be paid for by Pitney Bowes. There will be no cost for businesses to participate in the new program. In the Pitney Bowes second annual national environmental survey of office workers, conducted in 1992, a total of 80 per cent of those surveyed indicated that they believe their com pany could do more to be environmentally responsible. "This is a most significant product stewardship initiative. By establishing a reuse system for toner cartridges that goes weii be'yond just recycling, I believe Pitney Bowes is setting a standard for the entire business machine industry," says John Hanson, executive director of the Recycling Council of Ontario. Tip: At the office, encourage your co-workers to take their used glass bottles, tins and aluminum cans home to their curbside recycling program. As well, apple cores and other organic lunch waste can be taken home for compost. Coming event: Oct. 27 to 29, Toronto, Recycling Council of Ontario's annual conference. For information, call 1-800-263-2849.